The old courthouse building may get new life yet.
Despite a decision by council to potentially return the building to the province when the lease runs out this year, the building may yet go back to the community.
Joyce Helweg of the Fort St. James Community Foundation has stepped forward to stop the municipality from releasing the building. Instead Helweg is proposing a number of groups in the community come together to look at cleaning the building up to make it more usable and then allowing those groups to use it for storage and meeting space.
Mayor and council discussed her proposal at the last council meeting and agreed to look into the feasibility of changing the use of the building so it could be kept.
Helweg has spoken to the Girl Guides, the Fort St. James Community Arts Council, Fort St. James Rotary Club and the Fort St. James Community Foundation, all of whom are in favour of keeping the building.